STS Connections Resources New Biology – a modern approach

Resource sheets on STS

activities
STS Connections 3.1 Discovery of cells and developments of the
microscope (EXTENSION)

The inventions of microscopes

Biography of Robert Hooke

18 July 1635 • Born in Freshwater, Isle of Wight

1658 • Applied the circular pendulum to watches
1660 • Discovered Hooke’s Law of elasticity (announced in 1676)
1661 • Published an article on capillary attraction
May 1664 • First to infer the rotation of Jupiter
July 1664 • Found the number of vibrations corresponding to musical notes
September 1664 • Discovered fifth star in the Orion trapezium
January 1665 • Studies included: the nature of air and its relationship with
respiration and combustion; the laws of falling bodies; improvements
to diving-bells; methods of telegraphy; the relationship of barometric
readings to the weather; fixing the thermometrical zero at the
freezing-point of water
1665 • Published a book entitled Micrographia, in which the term ‘cell’ was
first suggested
• Appointed as the professor for Gresham College
September 1667 • Appointed as a City Surveyor, responsible for the reconstruction of
London after the Great Fire of London in 1666
1667 • Explained the scintillation of stars
1674 • Constructed the first Gregorian telescope
3 March 1703 • Died at Gresham College

© Aristo Educational Press Ltd. 2004 1

STS Connections Resources New Biology – a modern approach

Scientists who took part in the development of microscope and their

inventions
• Antony van Leeuwenhoek was the first man to make and use a real microscope

• Ernst Abbe carried out a theoretical study of optical principles

• Otto Schott conducted research on optical glass

• Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska constructed the first electron microscope

The importance of the different kinds of microscope to the development of

science
• Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria, free-living and parasitic microscopic protists, sperm
cells, and blood cells

• Louis Pasteur of France used a compound microscope to discover yeast, a kind of fungus

© Aristo Educational Press Ltd. 2004 2